The 17 year old Alexander Prior's appointment to a significant conducting role
in the US calls into question the need for a long apprenticeship as a
conductor.

The news that 17-year-old British prodigy Alexander Prior has been appointed to a conducting role at a significant US symphony orchestra will make many in the music world shake their heads in disbelief.

Prior is now assistant to the Seattle Symphony.It’s a role that needs quiet professional competence, and wide experience of how an orchestra works.

Quiet competence and experience are not what spring to mind in connection with Prior. Last year he presented a Channel 4 series in which he auditioned players for the chance to take part in his own Quadruple Concerto. He came over as insufferably cocksure, and his work showed a complete obliviousness to any trend in music later than about 1920.

So why is Seattle so keen to have him? Clearly, they think they’ve spotted star potential. And, far from being a handicap, inexperience is part of the charm; it makes the young shaver’s split-second decisiveness and the ability to have 80 musicians move as one all the more astounding.

Inevitably, there will be warnings from traditionalists about the danger of pushing talent when it’s too young and unformed. But I think what really bothers the old guard is the thought that he might be a rip-roaring success. They’d like us to believe that genuine conducting can only arise out of a long apprenticeship. But there’s a huge irrational component in the art, and a large dollop of showmanship. The rapid rise of Alexander Prior is an uncomfortable reminder that a smoothly youthful skin combined with total self-belief can take someone a very long way.